By Debralee Santos and Gregg McQueen
Members of the Air Force medical team arrived in the South Bronx.
Bronxites are dying at a higher rate from COVID-19 than residents in any other borough.
Data from the city’s Health Department (DOH) shows that Bronx residents who contract the virus are twice as likely to die as New York City residents overall.
In the Bronx, there are 65.1 coronavirus-related fatalities per 100,000 residents.
As of April 5, the Health Department reported 12,738 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Bronx, compared with 9,251 in Manhattan, a more heavily populated borough.
Minorities are also being disproportionately impacted by the virus.
The Hispanic community has the city’s highest death rate among COVID-19 cases, according to DOH data.
34% of people who have died from the disease in New York City are Hispanic, though Hispanic residents only make up 29% of the city’s total population.
The second highest mortality rate of 28 percent is in the African American community, which comprises 22% of the city’s population.
That both the borough of the Bronx – which is New York City’s only county with a Hispanic majority population (in the 2010 Census, 53.5% of Bronx’s population identified as Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin) – and the city’s overall Latino population have been hardest hit by the virus is an alarming correlation.
The city’s Health Commissioner Oxiris Barbot, the first Latina to hold the post, is a Bronx native.
Read more: Bronx leads in COVID-19 death rate | Bronx Free Press
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